Bigfoot Goes East? Yeti Footprints Discovered by Japanese Researchers

Abominable snowman or improbable snowjob? Researchers from Yeti Project Japan have discovered a set of odd footprints that just might be from the Yeti, Bigfoot's mysterious Asian cousin.

The elusive Yeti has long been reputed to inhabit the farthest reaches of the frigid Himalaya mountains. Now strange footprints found high up on Nepal's 7,661-meter (25,135-foot) Dhaulagiri IV could bring us one "step" closer to solving the riddle of the yeti's existence.

According to Yoshiteru Takahashi, leader of the Yeti Project Japan, "The footprints were about 20 centimeters (eight inches) long and looked like a human's." Well, the same could be said about most actual human footprints. Aren't the Yeti and Bigfoot, their dark-haired, North American counterparts, supposed to be bigger and taller than humans? Ask attendees at any bigfoot conference: they don't call it Bigfoot for nothing!

Yeti on the left, human on the right

But, let's give Takahashi the benefit of the doubt for the moment. After all, he says, "Myself and other team members have been coming to the Himalayas for years and we can recognize bear, deer, wolf and snow leopard prints and it was none of those."

Could the prints really be that of the Yeti, a shaggy, swift-moving, secretive creature that has never been caught - on film or otherwise? Even purported bigfoot sightings are much more common. States Takahashi, "We remain convinced it is real. The footprints and the stories the locals tell make us sure that it is not imaginary."

Instead of just measuring one, why not FOLLOW them?

Photos of the purported Yeti footprints and other images from the 7-member team's 42-day expedition to Nepal can be viewed at the Yeti Project Japan website.

"We will come back as soon as we can," promises Takahashi, "and we will keep coming back until we get the Yeti on film." Any Yeti reading this would be advised to comb their fur, brush their fangs and... hire an agent, you're gonna be a star! (via Yahoo News/AFP)

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